Contents

Development

In December 2009, Nexon Co. Ltd announced that they have signed a contract with Fantage. Nexon agreed to distribute the browser game developed by Fantage in Japanese starting in February.[1] This browser game was developed for kids to enjoy Fashion, being Fashionable, chat, and make friends. You could also play mini games. Furthermore, the game was targeted to younger Japanese girls, so it had:

Chat Safety

An educational system.

Contents of safety for children.

Environment

Fantage Japan did not have any Premium Members or any concept of Premium Membership, because it was still in the beta stage of development. Signing up for an account required a Nexon Japan ID. Creating a user was similar to signing up in the original site during 2008-2010. Each new user got 100 Stars upon joining.

Some items left over from the beta of the original site were purchasable by users. Event items from Orion's Return were made as Rare Items in Fantage Japan. The NPCs, as well as the rest of the Fantage Japan, were given new moe styled appearences, as seen in store catalogs and pictures, while their overworld avatars are unchanged.

Etymology

The Japanese site was known as 『おしゃらんどファンテージ』 (Orsharando Fantēji). The title is a combination of the Japanese words for "Fashionable" 「おしゃれ」(Oshare) "Chat"「おしゃべり」(Oshaberi) and the word, "Land" 「らんど」 alongside "Fantage" which is combination of the worlds "Fantastic" and "Age".[1]

Exported Features

A famous feature in Fantage Japan was the creation of two sets of eyes. In the original Fantage, the eye sets are known as "Ocean Turquoise Eyes" (boys) and "Crystal Blue Eyes" (girls). The eye sets were originally from Fantage Japan, and both the Ocean Turquoise Eyes and the Crystal Blue Eyes were available for girls in the website. A few costumes from Fantage Japan also made their way to original Fantage site later, but they were edited when they were introduced there. Another feature in Fantage Japan was the ability to buy more than one of the same item, though there was no way to sell the duplicate items. This concept did not arrive into the original Fantage until November 2012.

Sign regarding Magic Boxes.

Magic Boxes

Fantage Japan also had Magic Boxes around Fantage. These would give users exclusive items upon buying a Capsule from these boxes. One capsule cost 100 Nexon Points, or 200 Stars.

Closing

On November 3, 2010, Nexon Japan made an official announcement[2] on their website stating that the website would be terminated the following month. Fantage Japan was closed worldwide on December 15, 2010. If someone tried to access the site, they would get a sign from Nexon regarding the website's termination. Later after closing, many I.P. oversea adresses were blocked from accessing the site[3], due to the huge amount of people trying to access it. Even if you are using a Japanese address, you will still only get the message regarding the closing of the website. There was no reason giving on why the site closed down, but it was most likely due to their contract with Nexon Co. Ltd ending.

As of 2015, the original URL became a redirect to a notice page regarding the services termination, different to the one in December 2010 with a similar message.

Trivia

Many think Fantage Japan still works in and around Japan, but this is false.

The weekly magazine "Comet" was not included in the Japanese release.

Fantage Japan did not shut down because of the March 2011 Earthquake in Japan.

All users started out with 100 stars.

Fantage Japan was only open for about 308 days.

The site was often abused by overseas users, some users would curse without censorship because the site did not recognize them as curse words. Many believe this is one of the reasons for Fantage Japan's termination.